Meh. I'd be worried if he were at Colorado or Oregon State or something. Where he's going, the people that respond to his type of recruiting aren't going to Cal anyway. The only problem I see is his potential to get top recruits off of top 10 programs. We need more 4* recruits, to be sure, but his focus will be on national 5* recruits.
Because before he was young and a rising star in the coaching world. He worked for a hot coach in Jeff Tedford and then Nick Saban at Bama. Now he is older. He is no longer a rising star. If he failed as a DC at Bama with all their talent, I don't see him successful at Oregon. Basically, his star has fallen. He's older and yesterday's news. And unless he knows how to land big NIL contracts for his recruits, the cup is worthless. Plus, for parents of recruits Tosh has a tarnished image. He certainly does not shine as an example of integrity. He's been a do whatever it takes kind of guy, fuck the rules. If it works its great for his career. But those kind of people shit on other people who they can't use. Fuck him. If our coaches can't sell off his shitty track record to get recruits then our coaches can't recruit. And, I believe our coaches can recruit just fine. Tosh's loss, but all he can do is blame himself and his own choices.
Not that it won't help, but feels like a fairly redundant move: adding a co-defensive coordinator to a team whose head coach will likely be the real defensive coordinator. As a recruiter, he's joining a staff and program that's already heavily stocked. He'll help them, but I don't think this adds too much of an advantage that wasn't already there.
It's really kind of sad. I grew up in Walnut Creek, where his family had owned Lupoi Market, which was a fixture in the community for a couple of generations. That Tosh attended DLS, went to Cal and had become a prominent contributor to the staff was kind of storybook stuff. Unfortunately, the betrayal of his community and of basic human values was also its own sort of Shakespearean storybook tale.
I'm a Cal alum and a passionate follower of Cal football, ever since I walked on campus in 1984. But I've always been disappointed by the marketing of Cal football. I won't do a deep dive into my credentials, but I'm an expert in the qualitative ways you reach various demographics and move them via your call to action.
Our marketing has generally been underwhelming, and you can tell by how others who visit (announcers) speak about Cal: Weird, The Play, Tightwad Hill, 1960s...etc. If others are defining you by your past, your marketing has failed, and it's failed to reach those in the Bay Area who should be in the stands rooting for Cal football.
But, let me not just complain. Let me give you some suggestions that may or may not be already on the board:
1. Dominate the Bay: Cal has too often felt distant for people who didn't go to Cal. There needs to be an overt Cal Bart Alumni outreach to neighborhoods in East Oakland, West Oakland, Richmond, etc. which aren't normally the "Old Blue" network. It's full of Black and Latinx young people and families who'd love to enjoy Cal football if they were asked. And I know that NFL and college football fans are different, understand the connective tissue and speak to them.
2. Optics become habits: A sparsely filled stadium at kickoff means that it feels like people don't care. And they do. Find one brand to give away $10K to any student that is in their seat before the kick-off. Use an app with GPS to do the giveaway.
3. Reengage new students: They have no idea about Aaron Rodgers etc. But get them to buy in by creating engagement before the game. Card stunts are great for people who remember World War II and Vietnam. Do something different with today's tech. Use phones at night to create patterns. Use soccer's Tifos to get students to create clever messages at games.
4. Amp up the academic/athletic connection: Football should connect with various academic departments to show how the two don't have to be at odds. Get professors to come to games and use social media to talk about the game from their perspective. Physics professors talk about the collisions and their research into CTE. History professors talk about the intricacies of football history and Cal. We're the school with a billion Nobel prizes. Lean into it.
5. Get rid of that "You see Berkeley" promo. I know you've heard that before.
6. Engage Black Cal alums. Hardy Nickerson is a friend, and he created a gathering before USC. That's a great start. The marketing has to understand how to speak to us and that's not just through regular Cal marketing.
7. Ignore the voices that say you need a 'traditional uniform' or a 'traditional this or that.' Give me a tie-die uniform Give me a uniform that has all the Nobel Prizes on them. If Cal is going to be 'weird' then be weird on our terms and how we define it. But do it while moving forward versus backward.
8. Now...to counter what I just said...embrace the Angry Oski from the past. He's an icon that we don't use enough, and I think he's a gold mine. Whether creating a cartoon character or to show that Cal football has fight, I'd use him everywhere. No more Mr. Nice Guy type of vibe for the 21st Century...
Again, I know you get a billion of these emails, but I'm hoping some of this makes sense. We all want winning Cal football, but we also need to support our players and coaches with innovations that help them get folks in the seats. Thanks for listening and Go Bears!
I hope you and yours are enjoying the holiday season and staying safe and healthy during these crazy COVID times.
You lay out some great ideas below – some we are already doing, some that we are looking at and some that I personally had not thought about. I will share with our Marketing Department and we will continue to work to fill our stadium as you discuss.
As you know, most of our fans travel to our games by public transportation and I am hopeful that by the time our season starts next year, our fans will feel more comfortable using public transportation than they were this year.
Thank you again for your passion and great ideas – keep them coming!
We are building a foundation that will hopefully keep us on an upward trend for years to come.
Good shit both ways. Love the enthusiam and the back and forth. The cell phone flashlight idea is pretty damn good. I agree and think the You See Berkeley is garbage. General outreach to different groups while rather obvious cannot be overlooked like it has been. The best combo idea by far is the embrace the angry oski along with professor interactions as it reverberates an identity across Cal as an institution and team, I live for that shit especially when I was in high school. You have to make the people inside care before the outside does.
Nice response. Hopefully he gets it. My impression is that marketing is cash-strapped for the most part and ineffectual. Getting new donors via new channels other than the traditional begging letters, emails, and phone calls also could be important. My idea expressed in another thread is to integrate the donation options with the academic fundraising so folks could check a box and donate to Cal athletics while they are checking a box to give $100, $200, or another amount to L&S Leadership Fund, Doe Library Fund, and so forth. Even $10 or $20 would be helpful. Given that Cal generated $1 billion in donations in 2020, even a fraction of this amount would be helpful.
Nope, my degree is history. But...I did work as an expert for a consumer trends company that used qualitative behavior and values to create macrotrends. That helped identify what worked with various demographics. I see trends way before they happen. I can also see rot. Cal marketing has a lot of rot.
I'm Alpha1906. LOL But as to marketing, it's important to realize who your market is today and not who it was yesterday. And we are yesterday. The ones with 20/30/40 etc. year memories. But that's not who you should be marketing to. You need to market to the Cal student of today and the alum of the past five years. And they DO know how to use a phone or an app or whatever thing that an innovative marketing strategy asks them to use. Because before it even happens, the marketing dept. will know their customer. Whenever I hear tradition, I hear dead. And unless that tradition is so part of the brand, Touchdown Jesus, Dotting the Eye, etc. then it's pretty worthless. Oregon recognized that and pushed their marketing forward. Cal needs to do the same, but in a very Cal way.
Great news! For us anyway. After being a position coach for Nick Saban he was given the chance to be DC at Bama....and fell on his face. He lasted one season, had one of Bama's worst defenses in recent memory and Nick politely told him it was time to move on. Musgrave will be his Yoda and the Force always beats the Dark Side.
That “ co-coordinator “ thing just provides a more prestigious label/salary. If they wanted him as a coordinator there wouldn’t be the “co” part. It’s just recruiting.
Of the 13 Cal players on the list, 8 of them became starters and the other 5 barely ever played. I'm not sure if that's a decent percentage or if it should be higher.
Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop hating Tosh Lupoi!
Prediction: Oregon fans will have a different opinion of faking injuries on defense to slow tempo than they did in 2010.
The rules on recruiting have changed with NIL legislation on the books.
Money in a coffee cup is so unnecessary now.
Meh. I'd be worried if he were at Colorado or Oregon State or something. Where he's going, the people that respond to his type of recruiting aren't going to Cal anyway. The only problem I see is his potential to get top recruits off of top 10 programs. We need more 4* recruits, to be sure, but his focus will be on national 5* recruits.
Those recruits responded and came to Cal while Tosh was here.
I doubt it. I think his best days are behind him.
Why do you say that?
Because before he was young and a rising star in the coaching world. He worked for a hot coach in Jeff Tedford and then Nick Saban at Bama. Now he is older. He is no longer a rising star. If he failed as a DC at Bama with all their talent, I don't see him successful at Oregon. Basically, his star has fallen. He's older and yesterday's news. And unless he knows how to land big NIL contracts for his recruits, the cup is worthless. Plus, for parents of recruits Tosh has a tarnished image. He certainly does not shine as an example of integrity. He's been a do whatever it takes kind of guy, fuck the rules. If it works its great for his career. But those kind of people shit on other people who they can't use. Fuck him. If our coaches can't sell off his shitty track record to get recruits then our coaches can't recruit. And, I believe our coaches can recruit just fine. Tosh's loss, but all he can do is blame himself and his own choices.
Not that it won't help, but feels like a fairly redundant move: adding a co-defensive coordinator to a team whose head coach will likely be the real defensive coordinator. As a recruiter, he's joining a staff and program that's already heavily stocked. He'll help them, but I don't think this adds too much of an advantage that wasn't already there.
They already have Tim DeRuyter, who is a damn good DC. My guess is that Tosh wanted the title for the hire.
I gotta stop hating him; takes too much energy and just frustrates the hell out of me……prick….. Maybe I’ll stop tomorrow……
It's really kind of sad. I grew up in Walnut Creek, where his family had owned Lupoi Market, which was a fixture in the community for a couple of generations. That Tosh attended DLS, went to Cal and had become a prominent contributor to the staff was kind of storybook stuff. Unfortunately, the betrayal of his community and of basic human values was also its own sort of Shakespearean storybook tale.
I hope he gets shingles...if he’s had chicken pox, the virus is already growing inside his body....just saying...
Kudos to our AD. Sent him an email with suggestions and the response back was encouraging.
Well you can't leave us hanging spill the tea!
Hello Mr. Knowlton,
I'm a Cal alum and a passionate follower of Cal football, ever since I walked on campus in 1984. But I've always been disappointed by the marketing of Cal football. I won't do a deep dive into my credentials, but I'm an expert in the qualitative ways you reach various demographics and move them via your call to action.
Our marketing has generally been underwhelming, and you can tell by how others who visit (announcers) speak about Cal: Weird, The Play, Tightwad Hill, 1960s...etc. If others are defining you by your past, your marketing has failed, and it's failed to reach those in the Bay Area who should be in the stands rooting for Cal football.
But, let me not just complain. Let me give you some suggestions that may or may not be already on the board:
1. Dominate the Bay: Cal has too often felt distant for people who didn't go to Cal. There needs to be an overt Cal Bart Alumni outreach to neighborhoods in East Oakland, West Oakland, Richmond, etc. which aren't normally the "Old Blue" network. It's full of Black and Latinx young people and families who'd love to enjoy Cal football if they were asked. And I know that NFL and college football fans are different, understand the connective tissue and speak to them.
2. Optics become habits: A sparsely filled stadium at kickoff means that it feels like people don't care. And they do. Find one brand to give away $10K to any student that is in their seat before the kick-off. Use an app with GPS to do the giveaway.
3. Reengage new students: They have no idea about Aaron Rodgers etc. But get them to buy in by creating engagement before the game. Card stunts are great for people who remember World War II and Vietnam. Do something different with today's tech. Use phones at night to create patterns. Use soccer's Tifos to get students to create clever messages at games.
4. Amp up the academic/athletic connection: Football should connect with various academic departments to show how the two don't have to be at odds. Get professors to come to games and use social media to talk about the game from their perspective. Physics professors talk about the collisions and their research into CTE. History professors talk about the intricacies of football history and Cal. We're the school with a billion Nobel prizes. Lean into it.
5. Get rid of that "You see Berkeley" promo. I know you've heard that before.
6. Engage Black Cal alums. Hardy Nickerson is a friend, and he created a gathering before USC. That's a great start. The marketing has to understand how to speak to us and that's not just through regular Cal marketing.
7. Ignore the voices that say you need a 'traditional uniform' or a 'traditional this or that.' Give me a tie-die uniform Give me a uniform that has all the Nobel Prizes on them. If Cal is going to be 'weird' then be weird on our terms and how we define it. But do it while moving forward versus backward.
8. Now...to counter what I just said...embrace the Angry Oski from the past. He's an icon that we don't use enough, and I think he's a gold mine. Whether creating a cartoon character or to show that Cal football has fight, I'd use him everywhere. No more Mr. Nice Guy type of vibe for the 21st Century...
Again, I know you get a billion of these emails, but I'm hoping some of this makes sense. We all want winning Cal football, but we also need to support our players and coaches with innovations that help them get folks in the seats. Thanks for listening and Go Bears!
Lawrence
Thank you for your insightful note!
I hope you and yours are enjoying the holiday season and staying safe and healthy during these crazy COVID times.
You lay out some great ideas below – some we are already doing, some that we are looking at and some that I personally had not thought about. I will share with our Marketing Department and we will continue to work to fill our stadium as you discuss.
As you know, most of our fans travel to our games by public transportation and I am hopeful that by the time our season starts next year, our fans will feel more comfortable using public transportation than they were this year.
Thank you again for your passion and great ideas – keep them coming!
We are building a foundation that will hopefully keep us on an upward trend for years to come.
All the best – Go Bears!
Jim
Good shit both ways. Love the enthusiam and the back and forth. The cell phone flashlight idea is pretty damn good. I agree and think the You See Berkeley is garbage. General outreach to different groups while rather obvious cannot be overlooked like it has been. The best combo idea by far is the embrace the angry oski along with professor interactions as it reverberates an identity across Cal as an institution and team, I live for that shit especially when I was in high school. You have to make the people inside care before the outside does.
Nice response. Hopefully he gets it. My impression is that marketing is cash-strapped for the most part and ineffectual. Getting new donors via new channels other than the traditional begging letters, emails, and phone calls also could be important. My idea expressed in another thread is to integrate the donation options with the academic fundraising so folks could check a box and donate to Cal athletics while they are checking a box to give $100, $200, or another amount to L&S Leadership Fund, Doe Library Fund, and so forth. Even $10 or $20 would be helpful. Given that Cal generated $1 billion in donations in 2020, even a fraction of this amount would be helpful.
Nope, my degree is history. But...I did work as an expert for a consumer trends company that used qualitative behavior and values to create macrotrends. That helped identify what worked with various demographics. I see trends way before they happen. I can also see rot. Cal marketing has a lot of rot.
I'm Alpha1906. LOL But as to marketing, it's important to realize who your market is today and not who it was yesterday. And we are yesterday. The ones with 20/30/40 etc. year memories. But that's not who you should be marketing to. You need to market to the Cal student of today and the alum of the past five years. And they DO know how to use a phone or an app or whatever thing that an innovative marketing strategy asks them to use. Because before it even happens, the marketing dept. will know their customer. Whenever I hear tradition, I hear dead. And unless that tradition is so part of the brand, Touchdown Jesus, Dotting the Eye, etc. then it's pretty worthless. Oregon recognized that and pushed their marketing forward. Cal needs to do the same, but in a very Cal way.
Of course no one calls them UC Madison.
You emailed AD not to hire Tosh?
There were MANY of us that did
Great news! For us anyway. After being a position coach for Nick Saban he was given the chance to be DC at Bama....and fell on his face. He lasted one season, had one of Bama's worst defenses in recent memory and Nick politely told him it was time to move on. Musgrave will be his Yoda and the Force always beats the Dark Side.
the bad news is his HC is a pretty good DC anyway...
Is Mettauer playing tonight for Oklahoma?
Lupoi is a scurvy lying POS. Saban couldn't trust his game calling abilities so he's perfect for screwing up Oregon. F Lupoi
I knew he would go to Oregon. Hopefully everyone learns what a scumbag he is and we can trounce Oregon
That “ co-coordinator “ thing just provides a more prestigious label/salary. If they wanted him as a coordinator there wouldn’t be the “co” part. It’s just recruiting.
Absolutely. Lanning is basically the defacto defensive coordinator. All Lupoi would need to do is bring in the five stars
Eh, he used to be a recruiter. But now is a discredited bozo. I’m not too worried
Oy!
Of the 13 Cal players on the list, 8 of them became starters and the other 5 barely ever played. I'm not sure if that's a decent percentage or if it should be higher.
This is too depressing